Obituaries

Dundalk resident Bernadette Gietka was a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service and aspiring playwright working four part-time jobs in June 2003 when she won the $183 million jackpot from the Mega Millions interstate lottery game. She chose the cash payout option of $112.8 million, taking home $76 million after taxes. Her win was the fourth largest in state history, a windfall both for Gietka and the charitable causes she championed.

Bishop F. Joseph Gossman, a former auxiliary bishop of Baltimore who served as the archdiocese’s first urban vicar, died Aug. 12.

Father Christopher Whatley is convinced that believers around the world have a powerful new friend in heaven. Her name is Teresa Bartlinski.

Monsignor Damien Nalepa, pastor of St. Gregory the Great in West Baltimore for 30 years and a much-respected proponent of inner-city ministry, social justice and non-violence, died suddenly at St. Gregory Aug. 4 at age 70.

Redemptorist Father Edwin G. Foley, whose pastoral ministry in the Archdiocese of Baltimore included work at Our Lady of Fatima in Baltimore, St. Mary in Annapolis and Sacred Heart of Jesus in Highlandtown, was remembered as a gentle scholar who had an ability to relate to people.

Paulist Father James McCabe, former director of the Family Life Center in Baltimore and a longtime columnist for The Catholic Review, died Dec. 25, 2011 in Toronto. He was 81 and had been battling cancer.